m_s:
Do others know of this little gem? It's mentioned in a good Geek To Live piece over at LifeHacker (http://www.lifehacker.com/software/feature/geek-to-live-how-to-fix-mom-and-dads-computer-138113.php), on how to fix your parents' computer. It's fantastic, automating the process of checking for malware of all kinds, and bringing together a range of really dependable programs. (By the way, when it installed Webroot's Spysweeper, I was presented with a special offer - today only! - by enter NPQVBCJ at the webroot store, one year's updates costs $19.95 - worth jumping for?) Combining this with AutoPatcher (www.autopatcher.com) is going to make my work of fixing people's machines a whole lot easier!

vegas:
This is alot of the stuff I have used for the last 2-3 years everytime i get a call for a jacked computer. Add these three1. Autoruns (www.sysinternals.com)2. http://www.62nds.com/ (windows update using firefox or opera) / Autopatcher3. AdMuncher. I can't believe the amount of stuff this program can prevent from ever even making it into your pc. In the last 2 months I have installed it on 4 peoples pc's, plus my own. The computers run faster and without issue.Amazing piece of software, both in the way it is written & of course it's so effective because they keep everything so up-to-date.

m_s:
That's what I like about it - it automates all the programs I already rely on... In fact, it's a bit of overkill I expect, but you can choose what runs.

mouser:
during the holidays many distant relatives you've never heard from may request you to spend 10 hours fixing their computer from all of the spyware and viruses they have installed.

my suggestion is that we request a new tool called:"Advanced Computer Repair and Cleaner Tool - Professional Technician Edition"

when you run it it will run for about 45 minutes, seem like its doing a lot of stuff but really be doing nothing. and at the end report a whole bunch of made up stuff about how the computer is 100% fixed and clean, but that because of hardware incompatibilities with the newest Microsoft Windows service packs, the user should perform a complete reinstall of windows in exactly 7 days.

this will get you off the hook of having to fix anything, and will shift the blame to microsoft where it belongs, and also get the person to do a complete clean install which as we know is only safe way to clean it.

vegas:
Funny Thing is, you could bring an external hard drive, off-load everything to there & re-install the system, fixes, programs, settings, files in less time than it takes to clean half the systems i see.